Manny Pacquiao’s return bout is targeted for January as a Premier Boxing Champions’ pay-per-view card on Amazon Prime, two officials familiar with the plans confirmed to BoxingScene on Friday.
While WBA welterweight titleholder Rolando “Rolly” Romero, 17-2 (13 KOs), remains the front-runner to land the bout, Romero told BoxingScene he is in the midst of a “spiritual journey” and would not be prepared for an originally eyed December Pacquiao bout.
Record eight-division champion and International Boxing Hall of Fame member Pacquiao turns 48 in December, and he is less than three months removed from a stirring draw against WBC belt holder Mario Barrios Jnr in a bout at MGM Grand that many believed he won.
Pacquiao, 62-8-3 (39 KOs), will repeat his attempt to join Bernard Hopkins and George Foreman as the only men to capture a world title after their 45th birthday.
He hadn’t fought in more than three years when he returned to battle Texas’ Barrios, as judges scored it 114-114 (twice) and 115-113 in Barrios’ favor.
In Romero, Pacquiao would meet a former 140lbs titlist who has lost only to unbeaten three-division champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis and a Pacquiao protege in Mexico’s WSBC interim 140lbs titleholder Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz.
After pushing for the bout following his upset victory over Ryan Garcia on May 2 in New York’s Times Square, Romero told BoxingScene the “only focus that has been on my mind is growing my relationship with God, because without him, I am nothing.
“It’s not even about money to me … never was. I’m thinking something much bigger.”
Las Vegas’ Romero elaborated in a video interview with FightHype that he is intent on keeping a promise to God made when he was homeless with a broken hand, with “40 bucks left.”
That led to a meeting with mentor Floyd Mayweather Jnr, in which Romero was given $2,000 by the boxing champion while healing family divisions and receiving a car from a local dealership.
“I didn’t follow God then,” Romero said. “… That money literally saved my life.
“If I didn’t hear the voice of God, I don’t know what would’ve happened. I should’ve followed Christ then. … I made a [compact] with God [that] I would follow him. I just started doing it. Now I know I’m on the right path. I’m ready to come back to boxing and give you guys another massive fight, another pay-per-view and just be a better man.”
The fiercely religious Pacquiao would likely empathize with Romero’s story after his own experience of being born again following gambling and womanizing behavior more than a decade ago.
Pacquiao’s fight sliding to January was enabled by Thursday’s news that PBC will stage a December 6 Prime Video pay-per-view pitting Cruz versus WBA junior lightweight belt holder Lamont Roach Jnr.
Although there was industry talk last month that PBC was interested in staging a Teofimo Lopez Jnr fight with Pacquiao in January, that discussion is now off indefinitely, an industry official said.
